1. Field of the Invention
A virucidal wipe for disinfecting surface areas from viral contaminants including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (AIDS), herpes, and hepatitis that has a disinfectant/fluid impervious barrier to protect the hands of the user.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The advent of the HIV (AIDS) virus has made exposure to human blood and other body fluids potentially fatal to doctors, hospital and clinic technicians, health care workers, and other hospital patients. Herpes and hepatitis B virus also can pose major disease problems to those exposed from direct or indirect blood contamination or other body fluids. Of specific concern is the effective removal of blood spills from various surfaces found in a hospital or laboratory environment. The problem has been to determine an effective means of removing viral contaminated blood, plasma, serum or other body fluids without further endangering the person cleaning the surfaces. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,119 issued to Marcus et al. on Mar. 25, 1986, a solid composition is shown for absorbing liquid and destroying pathogen activity. This composition is dumped over the blood spill and then removed as a solid material. A single wipe that does not require the removal of additional solid materials would be much more practical and desirable. A virucidal wipe is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,021 issue to Mahl et al. on Oct. 19, 1982 that is employed as a nasal wipe to reduce transmission of viral diseases by the hands. Another virucidal nasal wipe is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,912 issued to Hossain et al. which includes the use of impregnated substrates of facial tissues or non-woven materials. Clearly these wipes are not suitable for cleaning or removing viral contaminated blood or body fluids from surfaces because of the potential danger of exposure to the user.
The present invention overcomes the problems of the prior art by providing a virucidal wipe that includes a porous pad of gauze impregnated with an effective virucide (sodium hypochlorite) affixed to a liquid impervious, non-porous backing (barrier).